STAB: ADRIANO DE SOUZA WINS THE 2015 DRUG AWARE PRO, MARGARET RIVER

Friday, 24 April 2015posted by James Willmott

Adriano de Souza just beat John John Florence in the final of the Drug Aware Pro, Margaret River. Ads scrapped for every one of his heat wins at this event, never giving up and taking his unique brand of determination all the way to the silverware. While John was form surfer of the event, he had trouble completing rides in the final, getting bumped off the end section on his first four waves. Adriano, however, closed every one of his scoring rides solidly. And that was the difference.

“I’ve just beaten the best surfer on the planet!” said Adriano. “I’m so happy and I feel so motivated. After reaching the Final in Bells and not winning I was really spurred on. It’s such an honour to put my name on the stairs here. Every morning I walk down them and see those names and just wish that my name would be there some day.”

“John John is one of the most crazy talents we have on Tour and we just had a blast out there. I’ve been watching John John through this event and he’s been killing it. I’m really motivated going into Rio and I feel like I have to keep improving and putting in hard work.”

“I think everything that happened in this contest was a challenge. We had great conditions at The Box and amazing conditions at Main Break. I really believed in myself out there and I’m so happy and so pleased to win. The World Title race is well and truly underway now and people will definitely be trying to catch me.”

Ads now takes the yellow jersey heading into the closest thing he has to a home event: Rio.

Mr Florence pushes himself up the ratings too. He was always gonna do well in this event, and though he didn’t get ze cigar, his output in the West has been sensational. “I love coming down here,” said John. “Last year I lost early and didn’t get the chance to surf at The Box in a heat so it’s been a really amazing event to surf over there and then come to Main Break and do the biggest turns you can possibly do. The end section is really tricky, it’s really flat then doubles up and it’s really hard to time it right and I made a couple of mistakes. I was stoked to get one really good wave in the Final though. Adriano is so gnarly, he’s so consistent with everything. He only caught two waves out there and they were both high eights and I was blown away.”